Distributed Leadership-Lessons for Grassroots African Democracy?

Marshall Ganz in an MIT lecture titled 'Distributed Leadership in the Obama Campaign' stated:

Leaders recruit, motivate and develop others, constructing a community around common interests, and building capacity from within the community. And unlike businesses, which tend to rely on rigid hierarchies, and systems and procedures, effective volunteer-based organizations must engage and enable lots of people to become innovators, adaptive in the face of uncertainty.

What could African democratic movements learn from the promise of organically grown grassroots organizations? Grandiose Parlor points us to a quote by Abba Kyari where he discusses options available to Nigeria's opposition parties:

There is no royal ride to success. The people properly enlightened, educated, mobilised and adequately led will reject and revolt against a situation that has all but enslaved them and condemned them to poverty. Sardines do not applaud their can.